Pessimistic Politics: September 11th Remembered - A College Student's Retrospect

So here we sit on the fourth anniversary of the day that changed America. Four years ago, a series of events, accruing in remarkably quick succession, altered the lives of nearly every American and coutless others around the world. This was September 11, 2001.

I still remember that day clearly. It was my first semester in college, and I was getting up late in the morning because I didn’t have class until two that day. I sat in my room eating lunch (possibly ravioli, but this is unimportant) watching an episode of Harlock Saga when the phone rang. It was my mother.

She told me not to come into school today because we were under attack. She sounded scared. A shot of adrenaline rushed through me as I tried to decipher what she meant. It was my first notion that she meant some loony had come into the college and started shooting at people, which was a reasonable paranoia, as the nation was coming down from the fear generated by the Columbine shootings.

She elaborated and told me that terrorists had flown planes into the World Trade Center and the school was closing, so she’d be home soon. I hung up the phone and stood, stunned not because of the news, but the severity of it. I decided to turn on the TV to see if there was anything on there about it. What an understatement.

For an unknown amount of time, I was bombarded with the images and the uncertainty. We still didn’t know what happened exactly, we just knew it was bad. The images didn’t sink in, though. How could they? This was too big for an Ohio suburbanite’s brain.

The only thing I could think about was how the Twin Towers were gone. Not that I ever thought about them or knew very much about them, but that was irrelevant now. They were gone and they were never coming back. The thought of something that big disappearing was overwhelming.

I went about my business that day, later having dinner at Wendy’s with my girlfriend. We talked about the incident a little and I commented that it was sad. Another understatement, but I don’t think any of us could have predicted the events that unfolded as a result of this tragedy. Only time could lay out the gravity of the situation for us.

After the initial chaos died down, a memorial service was held on the Friday after. I remember this well, because it was my birthday, though the general mood couldn’t reveal any celebration. My mother and I decided to go to Bill Knapps for lunch that day, and though it was noon, the entire room was dark and silent, the mounted TVs showing the memorial service, the restaurant patrons hanging onto every word the president was saying. I kept thinking that the situation reminded me of a scene in 1984, and come to think of it, that analogy has more validity than anyone could have suspected, at least if you’re a liberal.

When those planes hit the Twin Towers, so much changed in America and the world, and many things were forever scarred. The most direct and severe scars are those left on the families and survivors of the attacks. How could any of us imagine scrambling out of a building that could fall on top of us at any minute, or the thought of a loved one jumping out of an upper story window in a futile attempt to escape death? It has been said that fear gives men wings, but, to add to the analogy, when those wings grow, they can leave painful scars from whence they came. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, we might have forgotten that those who were cut so deeply by 9/11 still hurt to this day.

Our very way of life changed. We were no longer big, invincible America who was only mildly threatened by a few yahoos from our own country. Four common passenger airplanes were all it took to drive home the fact to every American that other people hated us and were willing to kill themselves and our own innocent civilians to take us down. These terrorists, and terrorists like them, are, of course, idiotic. I’m not sure if they think we’ll give up and let them rule over us because they got one solid punch in or they think we’ll do what they ask, but like a child throwing rocks at a beehive, the terrorists may have damaged some of the hive and took some of the bees with it, but they neglected to consider the rest of the hive, which is now very pissed off.

And so the terrorists ran back into their houses and hid. But the angry bees followed, flying on the wings of stealth bombers, armed with stingers of M60s, intent on finding those responsible for their suffering and delivering back to the hive the sweet honey of justice. Or oil.

And this is another change 9/11 brought on us. The president sent over our young men and women to fight the terrorist scum that wronged us so, but as the war went on, the focus shifted from Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the attacks, to Saddam Hussein, who was accused of helping carrying out the attacks, though no proof could be established. The people began to question the intentions of the president, whose father Hussein attempted to assassinate when he was in office a decade before. It began to seem less like a mission of justice and more like a personal grudge. And there was that oil Iraq had on hand, which the vice president and his oil company would have loved to get there hands on. Saddam Hussein was captured long ago, but Osama? Who knows? And who really cares any more?

Now we no longer trust our president or our government, believing them to be on a power trip more than serving the people’s will. How can we recover from something like that? America has before, but only when the cause of suspicion is removed from power. Maybe in ’08.

Our suspicions were not only cast at our leaders, but also at our own people. Anyone walking around the country that even looked close to the same nationality as the enemy was eyeballed and categorized as a possible threat. We upped security, especially in our airports, to make sure that no one could pull something like 9/11 again, even at the cost of our dignity. We created a terrorist alert level system, which is about the stupidest thing to come out of our government in a while, and that’s saying a lot.

One thing we gained from 9/11 is a renewed sense of patriotism. Americans from all walks of life decorated their cars with “Proud to be American” bumper stickers and held their flags up high as patriotic music blared on every other radio station. This lasted for a few months before the patriotism fad died down and we moved on to something else. But considering the circumstances, it’s probably a positive that anything good came out the attacks, but I’d still rather they never happened in the first place. You can keep your bumper stickers in that case.

In the end, nothing good came out of the 9/11 except a lesson: we are not invincible. That message alone could help deter a disaster that could be far worse. Though our methods may be flawed, at least now we’re on the lookout for those who would so foolishly believe that by attacking us, we will bend to their wills.

We, as Americans, aren’t saints, but like any other people, we deserve to live, and anyone who denies us this most basic right must be prepared to face the consequences. We are Americans, and though we may take the problems of the world for granted sometimes, we still try to make things better, and we’re still going to fight for that ideal. Thank you.

And to the families and friend of the victims of September 11th, my sympathies and encouragements go out to you.